I heard an interesting thought the other day.
One of my friends told me that his left-leaning son had told him that he was not worried about conservatives, after all within twenty years they will all be dead.
We deserve better
Brutus
Mayor throws tantrum
August 4, 2018Our mayor’s recent actions relating to the reporter from El Paso Inc. are disturbing on many levels.
Among them:
- The mayor takes the reporter to task for filing public information act requests. The reporter is following the correct procedure. He also seems to be looking into more things than other reporters in town. We thank him.
- The mayor accuses the reporter of attacking his integrity. No, the reporter wrote that the mayor failed to turn over information that he is legally obligated to turn over. Could it be that the mayor understands his own level of integrity?
- The mayor has stated that he will refuse further interviews with the reporter. Maybe if he had a better handle on his ego he would sit down and work things out. Instead we hear “I’m important–I don’t have to talk to you”.
- The mayor addressed his email to the reporter and to the reporter’s boss and colleague. Why would he do that unless he wants to cause harm to the reporter.
There are of course other aspects to this mess.
Wouldn’t we all be better off if the mayor followed the law?
We deserve better
Brutus
15 Comments | 
City government | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Your very own tax increase
August 3, 2018The city’s proposed budget book for next year is out, all 936 pages of it.
From the third page:
This budget will raise more total property taxes
than last year’s budget by $20,818,484 or 7.6%,
and of that amount $4,650,483 is tax revenue to be
raised from new property added to the tax roll this
year.
There you have it.
After they wrote that gem they decided to raise the tax rate even more (to just below the point where the voters would have to approve it), and are considering slapping sales tax on our electric and natural gas bills.
We deserve better
Brutus
17 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Will you get a traffic ticket?
August 2, 2018The city’s proposed budget for next year has a surprise for us relating to the police department.
Last year they budgeted $2,036,645 as revenue from moving violation fines (traffic tickets).
This year they plan to budget $2,817,661 or 38% more.
That’s a bunch.
We deserve better
Brutus
19 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
City pension funds
August 1, 2018Fitch is a rating agency that attempts to tell bond investors the level of risk that they face when buying bonds.
They issued a report concerning the city’s bond offerings in 2016.
Among their observations:
Public safety pension contributions fell short of actuarially required contributions by approximately $6 million.
The $6 million dollar shortfall was for the 2015 fiscal year.
In other words the city paid less money into the police, fire, and employee pension funds than they should have.
We will get the bill later.
We deserve better
Brutus
5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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